


And I Turned Round

by Dresupi



Series: Quicktaser Fics [23]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Clumsiness, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Injury, Injury Recovery, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-06 04:08:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8734345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dresupi/pseuds/Dresupi
Summary: Pietro's just minding his own business, being all alone and mopey, when suddenly...a BODY falls past his window.  A body that just so happens to belong to his upstairs neighbor.  Who fell while putting up Christmas lights.  And maybe Pietro won't be so alone and mopey anymore...





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kjs_s](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kjs_s/gifts).



> Originally posted on 22 December 2015 on [tumblr](http://dresupi.tumblr.com/post/135751417139/can-you-do-this-i-live-below-you-and-i-was). 
> 
> Based on the prompt: “i live below you and i was minding my own business watching the snowfall out the window WHEN I SAW A BODY FALL ARE YOU REALLY PUTTING UP CHRISTMAS LIGHTS NOW”

Pietro dumped his half-drunk mug of cold, forgotten coffee down the sink, gazing out the window to his left.

The people across the alley from him were decorating their Christmas tree.  Cute family…the dad was a doctor or something.  Wife stayed at home, kids went to daycare.  Not that he was peeping at them or anything.  But, when your window overlooks another window, you see things.  They probably knew him as the sad twenty-something who couldn’t get a relationship to stick, judging by how many different girls he’d brought home in the past year.

They made him sad. Reminded him of long lost family Christmases.  When his parents were still alive and Wanda didn’t live halfway across the world.

He didn’t even have a tree this year.  Couldn’t see a point in it.  He was alone. Wasn’t really interested in trying.

He turned off the water and ventured over to the window, tilting his head up to look at the night sky.

Snow was falling, making for a strangely beautiful scene.  It melted by the time it hit the puddles on the ground below, but by the next morning, his commute would be a disaster and his feet would freeze to the sidewalk at the bus stop.  He was just starting to grudgingly think of all he had to do at work this week when a thump and a screech brought him out of his thoughts.  Abruptly.  A form dropped just to the left of his window and swung precariously to the right of his balcony.  

Alarmed, he opened the window, tilting the glass outward and sticking his head out to see the upside down body of his upstairs neighbor hanging there.  He clamored out onto the balcony, reaching to pull her towards him. Lawrence?  Lewis?  Her last name was something like that.  

He could ask her later, it appeared she was unconscious or something.  Looking up, he saw her foot tangled in a string of twinkle lights.  He was trying to hold her steady, shouldering her weight and thinking of a way to get her down when she started flailing unexpectedly, screeching again right in his ear.  

“OH MY GOD…”  she looked around, eyes focusing on him.  “Fuck me, did I die?”  

“No?  You are on…MY balcony…” he said deliberately.  

She grinned dreamily, “Nice accent, Boris.”  

He rolled his eyes, she really must have hit her head.  Hanging from one leg over his balcony and hitting on him.  Either she hit her head, or she was really THAT bold.  

“Let me go get my ladder…” he said, moving to go back inside.  If she fell between now and then, she’d land on the concrete floor of his balcony.  Not a comfortable landing, but not death either.  

“Wait…just…stay there…” she bent upwards at the waist, bracing her free leg on the wall and putting most of her weight on him.  Not that she was heavy, but a little warning, maybe?  

Pietro grunted and shifted his arms so they were on her waist, right above her hips.  His fingers brushed bare skin and he was suddenly aware that she was in her pajamas.  Flannel pants and a t-shirt.  He held her up while she somehow untangled her foot and fell backwards into his arms. He was holding her, bridal style, and blatantly staring at her.  

Beautiful clear blue eyes, wide and curious as they took in his facial features.  She pressed her lips together, raising her eyebrows expectantly.  “Ya gonna leave me out here or can I use your window?”  

“OH! Of course…”  He leaned her through his open window, setting her safely on the floor inside.  She tried to stand and automatically crumpled to the floor, yelping in pain and gingerly holding her ankle.  

“Fuck…me…” she leaned forward and breathed deeply a few times while he scrambled back inside, easing the window shut behind him.  

“Are you alright?” he asked, kneeling down beside her.  

“NO!” she sputtered.  “Probably sprained my ankle or something…fuuuuuccccckkkk…”  

“Do you need me to take you to a hospital?” he asked, bending down again. She might have broken something.

“No, it’s fine, just…help me up and I’ll go ice this upstairs.”  

“You are going to somehow get upstairs with no help?  Let me take you to the hospital.”  

“No, no…it’s fine, really…thanks for your help…uh…” she faltered, “Boris.”  

“Pietro…Maximoff,” he corrected.  “And you are…?”  

“Darcy.  Lewis.”  

_Lewis!  I was right._

“Well, can I go upstairs and perhaps get something warm for you to wear before we leave?”  

“WE aren’t leaving, you can just help me downstairs and I’ll catch a cab.”  

“I will help you downstairs and WE will catch a cab.”  

“Listen…Pietro…I don’t want to put you out…”  

“Nonsense.  No plans at all for the rest of the day…is your apartment locked?”  

She shook her head, leaning back against the wall, accepting defeat.  “Coat’s on the hook behind the door, purse too…and can I borrow some socks?”

“You don’t have socks?”

“I do…I just don’t want you going in my bedroom.”  

He stifled a smirk and nodded.

“Thanks…” she said warily.  

He shrugged, “Do not speak of it.”  

* * *

The hospital was fairly uneventful, for a four-hour ordeal where he was coughed on no less than twenty-six times.  He thanked God or whoever was listening for a strong immune system.

Her ankle wasn’t broken. Just badly, badly sprained.  A grade 2 sprain, according to the doctor. She was to avoid stairs (she’d laughed at that, because she lived in a third floor walk-up), and to wear a brace for the next four weeks.  

She hobbled out of the ER leaning heavily on him and clutching a prescription for pain pills in her other hand.  

“Buy you dinner, Piet?” she asked.  

He smiled, “If you want. You do not owe me anything.”  

“Aw.  I was prepared to sleep with you too.  Just…nothing too acrobatic.  I DID fall off a balcony today.  Standard positions only.  Nothing fancy.”  

He chuckled and debated on just scooping her up to carry her to the sidewalk.  It wasn’t usually something he did, but he liked her reaction when he did it.  

“Chinese or Pizza?” she asked.  

Internal debate over, he bent slightly and scooped her up, walking to the curb.  “Either is fine.  Hail a cab, would you?”  

She wound both her arms around his neck with a laugh.  “And to think, I didn’t even KNOW you this morning.”  

“I knew OF you.”  

“I didn’t even know you existed.”  

“Tunnel vision.”  

“Bored-vision, more like. Geez, I’d have fallen off my balcony sooner if I’d known there was a romance novel cover model living beneath me.”

* * *

The Chinese food arrived at his place an hour later, and they ate it while watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” on his T.V.  She put off taking any of her new acquired pain medicine for his benefit, but soon, she had to beg out.  He offered his couch, but she refused, so he had to settle for giving her his number and forcing a promise to call him if she needed ANYTHING.  

He wasn’t entirely sure why he was sticking his neck out so far for this girl.  

Well, he had a hunch as to why.  

* * *

Darcy called him exactly four times over the following four weeks.  The first two were to help her get upstairs when she got home late from work. The third was to help her bring up groceries.  

And the fourth was to come with her to a New Year’s Eve party a friend of hers was throwing.  

She SAID it was because her friend also lived in a walk-up, and she couldn’t trust anyone to help her up or down stairs at a New Year’s Eve party.  But, she was the one pressing her lips to his at midnight.  And lingering well past the exuberant cheering of the drunk party-goers.  

Not that he discouraged her from it, though.  She tasted like cranberry juice, and she nibbled lightly at his bottom lip.  

He took her home, wondering what the hell it all meant.  She pulled him inside with her, erasing any and all questions from his mind.  

* * *

And the following year, when the family across the alley were putting up their Christmas tree, he and Darcy were doing the same. In his turned _THEIR_ apartment. But they skipped the lights on balcony.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](http://dresupi.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
